Martha's Girls (35 page)

‘Mammy said she’d waited to see me before … she could let go. I’m glad I came back. Even if they catch me, I’m glad I was there with her.’

‘You knew they’d try to arrest you, didn’t you?’ said Irene. ‘Did you plan this escape route just in case?’

‘Not really, but I knew that after the last internments the men in the street decided to give themselves a fighting chance if the police came for them again.’

‘You didn’t need to take me with you, you know, the police would have let me go.’

‘I’m sure they would, but your name would end up on a list somewhere and one day just knowing me could go against you.’

She felt his arm around her shoulder. ’There’s another reason why I pulled you into the loft. I’ve thought of you so often since I left Belfast. There were nights away from home when I tried to picture you, your eyes, your hair, the way your body felt when we danced that night at John Dossor’s. Do you remember? And when I saw you again tonight I wanted you with me. Will you come with me, Irene?’

‘Come with you to Donegal?’

‘No, to America, that’s where I have to go. There’s nothing left for me here.’ He pulled her close to him. ‘Will you come with me?’

‘You want me to go to America?’

‘Yes, tonight!’ Sean’s voice was suddenly excited. ‘We’ll go back over the border; there are people there who’ll help me. There’s many a man I know who’s gone the same way. Come with me, Irene.’

In the time it took to draw breath, hold it and breathe out, Irene saw the possibilities. She felt so alive with Sean, he made her understand what it was to be attracted to a man, and he was offering the drama of escape from Belfast and the prospect of a new life in America. She had only to nod her head or whisper ‘yes’, but her head didn’t move, no word escaped her lips. She thought of her mother and knew she wasn’t ready to leave her or her sisters. Knew also that she wanted to sing in concerts and work in the aircraft factory. Maybe a few years from now, asked the same question, she might say yes, but not now. She wasn’t done with Belfast yet.

‘I can’t,’ she whispered.

There was a sudden noise, a crack of light and a head peered up through a hole in the floor. ‘Sean, are ye there?’

‘Aye, I am.’

‘The police have been in and out of every house in the street. There’s half a dozen in your house and outside, but we can get ye out of here and away to the Shankill. They won’t look for ye there.’

He turned to Irene. ‘You won’t come with me?’

She shook her head.

‘Wait five minutes, then come down. Walk straight across the street and on past my house to the main road. You’ll find your way home from there. Goodbye, Irene.’ He kissed her and was gone.

*

When she emerged from the house the street was quiet. She put her head down and walked quickly. As she passed Sean’s house she saw a policeman at the door and hurried on. She had just turned into Northumberland Street when someone gripped her arm and pulled her into the shadows.

‘Well well, Miss Goulding, I knew we’d find ye here somewhere abouts. We missed your Fenian boyfriend this time, but he won’t get far. There’s half the force out lookin’ for him.’

‘It was you, wasn’t it? You read the card Sean sent me, you brought the police here! So what are you going to do now? Arrest me?’

‘No I don’t think so. I wouldn’t want to upset Martha like that. No, I’ll just keep me eye on ye, check your post that sort of thing. If ye know what’s good for ye, ye’ll have nothing more to do with that murderin’—’

In the dark, the slap across his face took Ted Grimes completely by surprise and he staggered backwards lightening his grip just enough for Irene to pull her arm free and run and run until her breath was spent.

Chapter 24

‘Go on then,’ said Myrtle. ‘Tell us where ye were and it had better be good, ’cause ye ruined my New Year’s Eve!’

Irene sighed. ‘I’m really sorry, Myrtle. It couldn’t be helped. I went round to see Theresa and her mother was really bad. I couldn’t leave her – the poor woman was dying. Theresa had to go for the priest while I sat with her and while I was with her she died.’

‘Oh God, that’s terrible!’

‘It was awful, Myrtle. I can’t bear to think about it.’ She felt herself close to tears yet again.

Irene had decided to stick to the truth about what happened on New Year’s Eve, but leave out any mention of Sean. She was still shaken up by the whole thing, especially the threatening encounter with Ted Grimes and, truth be told, she was half expecting the RUC to appear at any time. As for Sean wanting her to go to America with him, she had been over his words so many times in her head that she was glad to get to work to force herself to think of something else.

‘What did Sandy say when I didn’t turn up?’

‘Not a great deal. He doesn’t say much, does he? And what he did say was hard to make out. I couldn’t understand him half the time.’

‘Did you wait long for me?’

‘God Irene, we were foundered, the temperature was below freezin’. I’d only a wee cotton dress on under me coat, thinkin’ I was goin’ te be in a bar or the Plaza all night.’

‘Myrtle! Will you tell me what happened?’

‘All right, keep your hair on! We waited ‘til nine, then me and Robert went for a drink, hot whiskey and lemon to warm us up. Sandy said he would wait a wee bit longer. Well it was all right for him, sure he had his big RAF overcoat on him.’

‘Is that it? Did he say anything about me?’

‘Not much. Then when we were goin’, I says te him do ye want me te ask Irene to write to you? I told him, something’s happened, Irene wouldn’t just not turn up.’

‘No, says he. And I’m thinking is that no, he doesn’t want you to write, or is he agreeing with me that you’re not the sort of girl who leaves a man who’s come a long way to see her on New Year’s Eve standing like an eejit outside the City Hall.’ Myrtle paused to draw breath.

‘So does he want me to write to him or not?’

‘God knows. I says te Robert come on then, let’s get a drink inside us before it’s 1941 and we’re still sober.’

‘Myrtle!’ screamed Irene.

‘Ach, sure why don’t you write te him anyway. He can ignore it if he wants.’

*

When Irene arrived home after work that evening she was horrified to see Ted Grimes in the kitchen drinking tea with her mother. They immediately stopped talking when she walked in. She ignored them both and went through into the front room intending to go to her bedroom, but at the foot of the stairs she stopped and quietly retraced her steps.

‘I’m telling ye, Martha, you’ve got to get a grip on those girls of yours. There’s no father to keep them in line. It’s you that’s got to impose some discipline.’

‘Do you think I don’t know that? I do my best with them, but they’re growing up. They’re young women now. I can’t lock them up in the house, even though manys the time I wish I could.’

‘Bad company, Martha, that’s what I’m talking about. It’s the undoing of many a girl, believe you me!’

Martha stifled a cry and Irene could stand it no longer. She opened the door and went straight to Ted Grimes. ‘How dare you come in here telling tales and upsetting Mammy. It was bad enough that you tried to frighten me. You won’t get away with doing it to her as well!’

He pushed back his chair and drew himself up to his full intimidating height. ‘Now listen here, young madam, you’re a disgrace that’s what ye are and if ye were mine I’d give ye a good hidin’!’

Suddenly Martha was on her feet. ‘Ted, no one speaks to my daughter like that. You’re a grown man, an RUC officer, what are you doing frightening women? You come in here standing in moral judgement on us: how I bring up my children; how they conduct themselves. I won’t have it in my house. Now you get your belongings and leave.’

Ted took his time placing the cap on his head, pulling down the peak.

‘Goodnight to you, Martha,’ he said and without another word went out the door.

The two women breathed hard controlling their tempers. Each struggled to find appropriate words to begin to unravel what had just happened. In the end they both spoke at once.

‘What have you—’

‘I didn’t do—’

‘Irene, so help me, if you’ve been doing anything to let me down …’

‘I haven’t, Mammy, honest I haven’t.’

‘I’ll take my hand to you, don’t think I won’t! Now you’d better tell me what this is all about.’

Irene wanted to tell her Ted Grimes had been reading her letters, to somehow put the blame on him, but then she’d have to explain about Sean and that would connect her with someone wanted by the police and suddenly Ted would look like a caring friend. No, she’d been secretive and underhand and her mother would surely blame her for that. But she’d done nothing bad, had she? She’d helped Theresa, her friend, how could that be wrong? Sean hadn’t killed the policeman of that she was certain and so she’d helped an innocent man evade capture. Her conscience was clear.

‘Mammy, I’m not going to explain everything that happened, it would mean betraying someone who’s a good person even if Mr Grimes says they aren’t. You’ve always taught us right from wrong and I’m telling you I haven’t done anything wrong. Please trust me, Mammy, and believe me it’s really important.’

‘Is this to do with you and the airman?’

‘No it isn’t.’

‘Have I your word that you’ll never do anything like this again?’

‘You have.’

‘And what about Ted Grimes?’

‘He’s a bully and he frightens me and I’ll never speak to him again.’

Martha looked at her eldest daughter and knew full well her capacity for kindness and common sense. She nodded.

‘Then neither will I.’

*

‘Here we are. This is it, Peggy, what do you think?’ Harry pulled up outside a boarded-up shop just past the Crumlin Road jail.

‘It’s not very big is it?’ said Peggy, her face revealing a distinct lack of interest.

‘No, but it’s deceptive so it is. It goes right back, plenty of room for ovens and everything we’ll need. Come on, I’ll show you.’ He was out of the car in a moment and round her side opening the door and helping her out. He jangled a bunch of keys and made for the shop. Peggy hung back looking up at the building, then she widened her gaze taking in the decrepit surroundings.

‘Right Peggy, do you want lifting over the threshold,’ he joked. She gave him a withering look and stepped inside. It was filthy and stale smelling. It had been a bakery; there was a counter, display cases and wooden shelves just the right size for loaves. On the walls were faded posters for Rank flour and Tate and Lyle sugar.

‘Do you see the possibilities, Peggy, do you?’

She looked at the cobwebs spanning the ceiling corners and shuddered to think what made the floor gritty underfoot, but still she said nothing.

‘Come on through here to the bakery. You’ll be amazed at the size of it.’

There was a row of ancient ovens along one wall and racks of shelving. A large work table stood in the middle of the room, some stairs led to a second floor.

‘We won’t go up, they’re a wee bit rickety. Now I think we could fit this out with modern equipment and do it all up so it’s nice and fresh looking. Same out the front of the shop and get a nice sign up above, ‘Ferguson Family Bakers established 1941’. What do you think, Peggy, eh?’ She wandered around the back room then into the shop again with Harry chatting all the while.

‘I think for three hundred pounds we could buy this and turn it into a wee goldmine. There’s no other bakery around here and there’s plenty of houses down all these streets, hundreds of families wanting bread every day. We can’t go wrong. Eh, Peggy, what do you think? You remember Dessie we met at the dinner dance on Christmas Eve? Well, he’d be interested in lending us the money to set up here.’

‘Dessie? I thought you said he was a chancer.’ Peggy had moved to the open door and stood looking into the road. ‘And I suppose that’s his car you’ve borrowed.’

‘Ach he’s all right. He’s plenty of money. I’ve done many a job for him, never let him down. He’d trust me to pay him back. Mind you we’d have to work hard. I’d be up from four in the morning baking the bread and then I could do a few cakes, provided I could get the sugar, maybe some gravy rings, Paris buns, wee Victoria sponges. Things like that would sell well round here. Then you’d open up at eight, we’d close at six.’

‘What did you say?’

‘Aye, we’ll close at six, try and catch people needing bread for their tea.’

‘You said I’d open up at eight.’

‘Well, I’ll still be busy in the back for a few hours.’

‘You want me to serve in this shop?’

‘That’s what we agreed, didn’t we? Sure you’ve the experience.’

Peggy looked at him as if he had taken leave of his senses. ‘If you think I’m going from working in a music shop on Royal Avenue to a pokey wee bakery on the Crumlin Road you’ve got another think coming. I wouldn’t work here if you and Dessie paid me ten pounds a week and all the Paris buns I could eat!’

They drove back to Joanmount Gardens in silence. Harry stopped the car outside the house and turned to her. ‘I’ll tell you what, Peggy, how about I employ a wee girl to work in the shop, someone from the Crumlin? I wouldn’t need to pay her much and you could carry on at Goldstein’s for the time being.’

Aye, for as long as I like, she thought, and kissed him on the cheek. He drove off in search of Dessie, delighted that Peggy had agreed to something, but he couldn’t shake off the feeling of having been wrapped around a finger.

Peggy pushed open the back door to find Martha engulfed in a cloud of steam draining the potatoes, Pat setting the table, Sheila stirring gravy and Irene wetting the tea.

‘I’m thinking about marrying Harry,’ she announced.